Mallard

Mallards tip upside down in the water to eat.

Their tails stick up in the air! They eat seeds, plants, bugs and snails.

Mallards are dabbling ducks: instead of diving, they tip forward with their heads underwater and their tails in the air to reach seeds and water plants. They also walk on the shore pecking at plants and small animals.

What they eat changes through the year. In the breeding season they eat lots of insect larvae, earthworms, snails and freshwater shrimp. On migration, many eat grain and seeds from farm fields.

Mallards are generalist foragers. They do not dive but dabble, tipping forward to reach seeds and aquatic vegetation, and they also forage on land.

Diet shifts seasonally: during breeding they take mainly animal food, including aquatic insect larvae, earthworms, snails and freshwater shrimp, while many migrants feed heavily on agricultural seed and grain. In city parks they readily accept handouts, which Cornell links to how tame park mallards can become.

Mallards bob and shake their heads and flap their wings to send messages to other ducks.

In parks they can be very tame. In wild places they are shy and keep away from people.

Mallards have lots of displays, special moves that send messages. Males bob their heads at each other, open their bills to warn rivals, and sometimes push breast to breast. To court a female, a male shakes his head, looks over his shoulder or rises up in the water flapping his wings.

In city parks, where people often feed them, mallards can become very tame. Where they are hunted, they are much more wary of people.

Mallards have a large repertoire of ritualized displays. Males face off with head-bobs, threaten with an open bill, push breast to breast and defend territories with acrobatic chases. Courting males head-shake, look over the shoulder or rise up and flap; several males often display around one female, who encourages a chosen male by nodding or paddling with her head low.

Behavior toward people depends on experience: park birds fed by visitors become tame, while heavily hunted populations are very wary. Mallards often associate with other dabbling ducks and may hybridize with them.

There are lots and lots of mallards.

They need clean water and healthy wetlands. Keeping ponds and marshes clean helps them.

Mallards are listed as Least Concern, and they are the most widespread and abundant duck in North America, with about 19 million breeding birds. Their numbers rise in wet years and fall in droughts.

Mallards are also hunted more than any other duck in North America, so wildlife agencies keep track of how many are taken. Ducks used to be poisoned by swallowing lead shot; switching to steel shot has helped. Dirty water, oil spills and draining wetlands can harm them.

The IUCN lists the mallard as Least Concern (global assessment, 2025). In North America, Cornell reports steady populations from 1966 to 2019 (North American Breeding Bird Survey) and a Partners in Flight estimate of about 19 million breeding birds; numbers have cycled between about 5 and 19 million over 50 years with wet and dry periods.

Mallards account for about one in three ducks shot in North America, and harvests are closely monitored. Ingested lead shot poisoned many; a mandatory switch to steel shot along the Mississippi Flyway in 1977 greatly reduced this. Water pollution (mercury, pesticides, selenium), wetland drainage and oil spills remain threats.